To address the provocation provided by the editors I wish to reflect upon the ongoing civic and artistic responses to the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, 2010-11, in which 185 people lost their lives (largely due to poor engineering and construction practices). Whilst the example is very different in character from that of efforts to memorialize July 22, 2011, I wish to use the case to briefly respond to the issue of temporality as raised by Jacques Rancière in his critique of the ‘endless work of mourning’ produced by testimonial art. The orientation of this mourning, he argues, is always backward-looking, characterized by, ‘a reversal of the flow of time: the time turned towards an end to be accomplished – progress, emancipation or the Other – is replaced by that turned towards the catastrophe behind us.’ How might memorial practices divide their gaze between remembered pasts and possible futures? AM - Accepted Manuscript
A PDF copy of pages 330-331 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Social Soup'. Photos: Joel Cocks
February 22 marks 13 years since Christchurch's devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake, and the urban recovery is still in progress.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch earthquake. The Press makeshift news room in the paper sales building Gloucester Street after The Press was declared unsafe after a large aftershock caused further damage".
Hundreds of tourists have spent the night in makeshift accommodation in Wellington after fleeing earthquake hit Christchurch. The tourists were flown to the capital by the Royal New Zealand Airforce, many without passports, money and belongings left behind in hotels.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Maling Street in Avonside. From left: Tamatea Briggs (12), Ngarita Briggs (8) and Walton Briggs sit under a makeshift shelter while they wait for a wood fire to boil water".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Gunyah homestead was badly damaged during the September 4th 2010 earthquake, but the Cotterill family are picking up the pieces and rebuilding. William and Simonetta Cotterill in their makeshift bedroom which used to the drawing room".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Gunyah homestead was badly damaged during the September 4th 2010 earthquake, but the Cotterill family are picking up the pieces and rebuilding. William and Simonetta Cotterill in their makeshift bedroom which used to be the drawing room".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Maling Street in Avonside. From left: Tamatea Briggs (12) and Charlie Tarawa under a makeshift shelter while they wait for a wood fire to boil water. They are too scared to go in the house so are sleeping on the lawn".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Maling Street in Avonside. From left: Ngarita Briggs (8), Walton Briggs and Paula Grant sit under a makeshift shelter while they wait for a wood fire to boil water. They are too scared to go in the house so are sleeping on the lawn".
In the hours after the February 2011 Canterbury earthquake, Chessie Henry's father Chris Henry, a Kaikoura-based doctor, crawled into makeshift tunnels in the collapsed CTV building to rescue the living and look for the dead. Six years later, Chessie interviewed Chris in an attempt to understand the trauma that lead her father to burnout. In her book just published, We Can Make A Life: A memoir of family, earthquakes and courage, Chessie Henry considers the psychological cost of heroism and unravels stories and memories from her family history.